A STORMY AFTERNOON

gives me the chance to catch up on phoning some folks to check in on them, to prepare for Council this evening and to get in some reading.
It has felt like living in Florida these past two weeks with rain nearly every day. Yesterday evening the rain gauge registered 3 1/2 inches that fell after supper and before the late night news. During the night, between 3 & 4 am, it stormed again. Jazz came up and laid on the floor next to my side of the bed instead of in the dog bed at the foot of the bed. He hates thunderstorms. Renoir slept in his bed downstairs not at all perturbed.
After a very hectic June, it's nice to have a bit of breathing space. And ponder, stewardship for the fall and how to start a small Sunday School with old material.
And in the meanwhile, it's pouring and the steam is rising up from the paved parking lot and my van has been washed, clean, of dust, dirt and bug remains on the windshield. I am amazed at how lush it is here when usually at this point in the summer, everything starts looking rather peaked and dry. Even our lawn, full of native plants ( clover, crabgrass, and assorted others)is still green. I haven't had to water the garden or flower beds for the past 2 weeks which has been nice.
Last night a toad came to visit and rest on the front sidewalk leading up to the house and got baptized and seemed to enjoy the summer evening's rain and a bath. It's always good to see the toads knowing that they eat various and sundry critters around the garden and yard. I even noticed a couple of ladybugs this year in the herb garden, also welcome since they eat aphids. I wasn't too happy to see the slugs, but I suppose they, too, need a place to live. I may need to put down some more crushed egg shells which add calcium for the tomatoes and which the slugs detest.
The call committee at the church will be interviewing a couple of candidates and so it makes it hard for me to know how far into the fall I should plan. I suppose I'll be needing to update my dossier before too long and to see what God has in mind for me next. I weathered this one fairly well and they have settled into this interim time.
I keep hoping for somewhere to serve that would be a bit more permanent but then I am reminded that reminded that our good Lord had no place to rest his head and the disciples were always on the road as well. It seems that's how I am to spend my remaining years, forever wandering from place to place. Still it would be nice to have a few more hours, a pension, some medical insurance. It is as it is and I am grateful for each opportunity to serve, to stretch and grow, to be challenged and to keep on the move. I am, after all, in good company!!
For now, I will be content with the summer rain, the deep-throated rumbling of thunder, and the day that is yet before me.